If this potential treatment is so good, why did nobody fund it before iCancer?

Pharmaceutical companies are interested in research only when it looks likely it will produce a profit.

This research is some years away from that at this stage. In addition, neuroendocrine cancer is comparatively rare, so the market for the new drug is not huge. This will never be a blockbuster drug. Also, the Swedish research team placed much of their research in the public domain, in order to help others with their research.

This act of altruism has meant that the Swedish team is unable to patent their research. This, in turn, makes it less attractive to pharmaceutical companies, especially at this early stage.

The Swedish team has received grants from Swedish government funding and the Swedish Cancer Society (equivalent to Cancer Research UK). The grants cover the research to develop viruses for therapy but they are not big enough to run clinical trials with an advanced medicinal product where special rules apply (viruses falls under this category in Europe).